Savage Tide

Journey to the Galivant Cove

Having survived the wrath of the Crimson Fleet the people of Farshore were slowly putting their lives back together. Still it was only a matter of days before rumours spread about the death of Lavinia Vanderboren’s brother Vanthus, and his demonic nature and involvement with the Crimson Fleet. In the wake of these stories some have come to question Lavinia’s right to lead the people of the colony. They whisper of a hidden fiendish taint to her soul, not helped by the fact one of her companions was witness to have flown with demonic wings during the battle.

Lavinia suspect the Meravanchi family are some how involved in spreading the rumours, as they always seek to undermine her authority, but lacks any proof. Realising the impact the colonists’ unease might have she called the adventurers to a meeting over breakfast where she revealed what she had discovered in the log of the Brine Harlot (Vanthus’ flagship that was captured in the battle).

We reached Gallivant Cove with no incident, although the Seventh Coil yuan-ti renewed their demands for shore leave. I denied them again, promising them all the leave they could want once my sister’s little project is mine. Payment to the Glutton went smoothly (that beast’s teeth would make fine trophies!), and I personally led a group of five to the caves. The trogs looked worse than they stank—some kind of malady afflicts them for certain. Lords of Dread? Hardly. Yet they took our payments and slaves readily enough.

There was only one shadow pearl ready for us. I made clear my displeasure, but the simpering lepers convinced me that they were being truthful, and promised several more in a few months’ time. I’ve tried to avoid staring at the pearl overmuch. Its depth are hypnotic. After seeing what one of these little beauties did on Kraken’s Cove, I made sure to keep it in a padded container at all times.

It’s too bad we can’t just toss the thing into Farshore with a catapult and let them kill each other off, but I’ll not be the one to tell command we broke another of their toys.

Preparation for the Assault.

My apologies in advance if this (and the next) log lacks detail it has been a year between starting it and finishing it, between which I lost most of my notes. The group switched to another campaign right after finishing Tides of Dread, and now we are returning to the campaign so I’m getting the log back up-to-date.

With the Crimson Fleet expected at Farshore within two months, the townsfolk, lead by the council and advised by the Adventurers set about preparing for the defence of the colony. The two dwavrven Barhak Brothers oversaw structural improvements to the palisade, and the construction of two new watchtowers, built to cover the northern approach and the harbour. In the harbour itself a sunken barricade was formed to narrow the entrance.

Around town the adventures tried to adjust to ‘civilian’ life as best they could. Dalrin sanctified the graveyard and took up pastoral duties in the chapel, the blessings of the Sea Gods he brought lifted the spirits of island colony. Valdis used her charms to find additional recruits for the militia, a surprising number of young men wanted to prove their bravery to the young warmage. Once they had signed up however they tended only to see Trantil, Ulvar and Tolin who regularly drilled them in weapons and tactics. Tamzana aided in Professor Aldwattle’s Laboratory for a time before she found the old man’s constant sexual innuendoes too distracting. Shallasar Otellemi and “Two Feathers” had the most trouble settling back into an urban lifestyle and instead explored the coastline scouting out other beaches the assault force might land on.

Farshore in Flames!

As the adventurers outrigger-canoe rounded the rocky cliffs that sheltered Farshore’s harbour they saw the colony was in flames. In the harbour moored alongside the Blue Nixie was a battered looking dhow, with the figurehead of a large fiendish looking anglerfish on the prow. It flew a black flag with a skeleton dancing on the noose with an hourglass over one shoulder and a blood red heart over the other. Farshore was under attack by pirates!

Through the Great Wall

After defeating Olangru and purging the Shrine of the Demogorgon, the continued south and within a few days had reached the Great Wall. There they met with several Olman tribesmen lead by Huemac, Master of the Hunt, from the village of Tanaroa. Huemac, only spoke Olman, but a young woman who was with him clearly understood, the common trade tongue, used in Amedio region. She later introduced herself as Tayanna daughter of the matriarch.

In the village there was a celebration to give thanks for surviving the trails the shipwrecked survivors faced and the defeat of the ape demons. The Olman have strange customs, they see no evil in animating their dead, and in fact the Zombie Master is an honoured position within Olman tribes. The survivors were put a little on edge seeing zombies working in the fields, but as the villagers seemed not to be concerned they didn’t question them.

Showdown

Art by Ben Wootten

The huge chamber was watched over by five hideous statues. On the opposite side of the room was an even larger statue made of a green rock. Possessing the stout, stylised body of an ape, this statue had two stone tentacles where each of its arms should be. Sprouting from its shoulders were two fanged baboon heads. The statued lorded over the room atop a great dais, staring out in frozen rage.

To the east and west stood four towering demonic apes, bar-lguras like the creatures the heroes had already encountered. These faced a roaring fire pit in the room’s centre. Suspended above the pit locked in a metal cage, was Tristy Sommers, her naked body was battered and bruised marked with several cuts and painted with runic symbols. As she saw Dalrin and the others enter the room she pleaded for help. Her pitiful plea became a scream as the latch retaining the winch used to raise the cage flicked up and the cage started slowly lowering towards the inferno below.

The Temple of the Demogorgon

As the party advanced slowly out of the fog appeared the features of two gigantic fanged baboon heads, their fanged jaws opened wide. These figures were actually carved into the black rock of a small hill their gaping maws revealing two caves leading into the hillside. The adventures advanced into the western cavern, unfortunately it appeared to be rigged to collapse burying the front ranks of the party under several feet of rubble, but thankfully the back ranks of the party were able to dig them free before they suffocated. The adventures were more cautious as they navigated the eastern cave.

The Demons of Fogmire

The group decided to head inland in hope of avoiding any reprisals for the death and desecration of the gargoyle king. After about a days march through the mountain pass they made camp about a mile from the edge of the Fogmire, a mist shrouded swamp they would need to pass through to get to the open plains to the south.

Bar-lgura by Ralph Horsley

That night the camp was attacked, the assault was sudden and brutal, both Valdis Aldranna and “Two-Feathers” were taken completely by surprise as two large ape like creatures burst from the trees and pounced on them. A third larger ape seemed to be barking orders from a small hillock, screams came from within one of the tents the passengers were resting in.

As quickly as they attacked, they vanished, stepping back and disappearing into nothingness. Valdis prepared to defend himself shouting the alarm to raise the others, while “Two Feathers” moved to see what was causing the screams in the nearby tent. Shallasar slept on blissfully unaware of the attack. at the bottom of a nearby stream, but the others were roused.

Dalrin woke in time to hear “Two Feathers” say that Tristy was missing, some ape had grabbed her and then just disappeared, thinking quickly he summoned into his mind a picture of the simple silver bangle he had bought her all those months ago with the loot from the Lotus Dragon’s Den, focusing on it he got a bearing of its (and hopefully her) location nearly 300 ft to the south west. He charged off after her without a care the others or the situation in the camp, as he ran moved passed on of the creatures that had become invisible, it was a simple matter for it reach out with a claw and rake Dalrin’s chest, opening four bloody gashes and grazing one of his ribs. Such was Dalrin’s drive to recover his sweetheart he barely noticed the grave injury and calling on spirits of the winds to raise him up he zoomed up into the night sky.

Meanwhile at the camp more screams were now coming from the other tent, the large ape had vanished like his companions, after the battle they would discover Halfast Woodman and his infant daughter were also missing.

The Coastal Road

The following morning the adventurers cleared a path through the Olman temple complex. There they faced a number of challenges, a trapped tomb, guardian mummies and gigantic caterpillars that had grow fat eating fish that got trapped in the rock pools below. On exiting the pass they fought hungry monstrous crabs, which in turn were turned into a meal for the hungry survivors. Valdis Aldranna had nearly killed Trantil and Shallasar in his attempt to free them from the crabs claws with a lightening bolt, Shallasar had managed to shield himself from the bolt, but Trantil had been badly burned.

The group of shipwreck survivors pressed on through the jungle until they stumbled on a vast depression in the ground that stretched nearly 6 miles across by a mile wide. No tress grew in this area, and the ground was rough, with patches of tall grass. Dalrin gave the blessing of flight to Shallasar, who glad to be able to move freely in three dimensions, like he could at sea, dove into the air, from up above he saw a herd of enormous beast with elephantine bodies, long necks and even longer tails.

The Return of the Rhagodessa

With the survivors all on the beach (among them Avner’s horse, Thunderstrike who had somehow made it to shore), the adventurers turned their attention to recovering goods from the ship and along the beach, focusing mainly on food.

Dalrin pointed out that with a blessing from the sea-gods even the normally poisonous masher meat could be made edible, if not particularly palatable, and so one of them was dragged ashore to be hacked up to provide food for that evenings meal. They cut the sails to make a makeshift shelter and started fires to dry their clothes. Urol presented a map he drew of the Isle of Dread, showing where he suspected the ship had struck the reef and a proposed route to get them to The Great Wall, following an ancient Olman costal road, he thought it should only take about 10 days walking.